osterburg in weida.
for the easter holiday i was back in thuringia again and we decided to visit a castle called osterburg ( easter castle ) - very befitting to the holiday, right? it has nothing to do with the holiday of easter though, but with the fact that this part of thuringia was called osterland in the past - it being the land of the east. the osterburg is located in a little town called weida and it overlooks the city and the same-named river. the city itself has a history dating back 900 years, most important part of its history being the ancestral seat of the reeves of weida. it's also known as the cradle of the vogtland region.
apart from that, the city is a rather sleepy little town, but it still offered up some surprises! my favourite surprises were the ruins of several factories in the middle of the city, the city church st. mary and a really cool cinema from the 1920ies in the style of new objectivity ( neues bauen ), which is related very close to the bauhaus style.
the city had an overall feeling of forlornness and oblivion, which is probably doing it a bit injustice, but i have to say i liked it especially because of that! there was a beauty in its slight exfoliation and in the ruins we encountered that carried a charm with it which made my melancholy heart ache. i love these sorta lost places, places that are kind of stuck in the past, invisible ghosts haunting the still visible remains of history today.
weida is also known for being a city of many ancient mills, it was home to a lot of potters, tanners, shoemakers, weavers & clothiers. the timber-framed building on the left is a historical tannery which you can visit. the river flowing next to it is the river weida.
another sneak-peek at the castle. the donjon is the oldest part of the castle, dating back to the 12th century. the rest of the castle was built in renaissance times ( 16th century ).
on our way to the castle we encountered some easter-related decorations, a good reminder that it was the celebrations of easter bringing us to this place. while my family is not religious at all, we still like the traditions of the festivity. hanging up coloured easter eggs is a vital part of german easter traditions.
the golden duck in its basket is not exactly easter-related, but was a cute detail :)
upon entering the castle we stumbled upon some more harbingers of easter. the custodians of the castle decked it out in all kinds of easter symbols - even though it actually doesn't have anything at all to do with the actual celebration. but bearing the word ostern in its name is obviously a predestination for it. there were some interesting exhibitions about easter on the castlegrounds - telling you about traditions, symbols and the history of this festivity.
the decorations really were kinda cute.
charming narrow pebbled pathway inside the castle.
from up above you had a good view down onto the city. i discovered these interesting-looking buildings while having a long glance down. the building on the right with the damaged roof was a leather factory and the building on the left was probably another textile processing factory ( i couldn't find any infos ).
inbetween those two buildings a fitness studio found a place to fit itself into. it looks a little out of place, doesn't it?
my researching skills are not good enough to find out any info about this ruin. like i wrote above, i do believe it was another textile factory, maybe even part of the leather factory.
into the other direction from up above the castle hill you could see more of the actual city of weida.
this building stuck out the most: st. mary's church. the roof is unlike any church roof i've ever seen and the white brick facade with the fake windows was also something i deemed very untypical for a church. i found out that the reason behind that is because it was part of a franciscan monastery and the brothers were generally building their churches without a bell tower. i'm not sure why the window frames, though. they probably were real glass windows in the past, but maybe bricked up due to wars or something?
the tannery again, from above.
inside the castle's inner courtyard.
fair maiden looking out the window, musing over what the easter bunny will bring her?
another view onto the city, from a different point of the castle.
the staircase tower with arcade arches.
the castle seen from the courtly pleasure garden below. you can see pretty well that the donjon is different in architecture - more simple.
found some daffodils inside the pleasure garden!
there was also a chess board inside the garden, but no figurines to play with. well, i don't have a clue about chess, so... it wasn't a loss, haha.
there wasn't much else to see inside the castle, so we decided to head down into the city again and explore it some more. this old banana-coloured trabant stole my heart!
and this building right on the other side of the street where the trabant parked stole my heart, too! it's the community center, but actually was a cinema once! it still is one. when i first saw it, i thought: bauhaus! good gracious god! in this forgotten city? and my second thought was: this is so fucking cool! stumbling upon bauhaus/new objectivity architecture is always a highlight for me! the osterburg theatre was constructed in 1928 by wilhelm zacharias.
this was once part of a dominican monastery - the nonnenhof. it was currently on reconstruction. it's actually the former church of the monastery, which was dissolved around the reformation and then re-used as some sort of granary.
it was also used as a hostel for homeless people throughout the time from world war one to the 1980ies. i believe that the remains of wall colour you see here, are remains of those rooms used as living spaces for the homeless.
another shot of the inside of the building.
the castle dominates the view from several points throughout the city.
decrepit shop, with a flying piggy above the door. the shop was called piggy bank. i love me some gritty old architecture.
this glorious door was once the entry to a 1720ies dye factory.
i swear, there was some serious door porn going on in weida. i lovelovelove the flaking paint on this door and the rusty intricate ironwork!
these masonries are part of another ruinous church in weida - st. peter's. only the bell tower is still in existence, the rest was converted into a school and housings. the buildings are originally romanesque in their executions.
a side entry of the former church building. i also really love the round remaining window.
the back of the church. don't ask me why i didn't take a photo of the actual bell tower. i kinda forgot xD
the weida river next to st. mary's. yes, we're nearing that interesting white/red city church!
but before we take a look inside the church, let's enjoy an art nouveau building! i don't know who karl baumann was, but that house was surely a jewel when it was brand new!
hello beautiful front facade of st. mary's. the church and the monastery date back to 1267. these days the church is an evangelical one.
the inside was super beautiful! the wood carved furniture was quite a sight.
even the galleries were made out of wood, and would you look at that gorgous organ? the coffered ceiling is also worth mentioning!
that church felt incredibly ancient and magical!
waving goodbye to st. mary's again.
not far way from the church this building caught my eye. another new objectivity creation? it looked very elegant, but was empty ( a lot of the architecture in weida was not in use - a shame, quite frankly - but normal for sparely inhabited regions in the back countries of thuringia ). no info on this gem could be found.
art nouveau buildings were also part of the city structure - this one dating back to 1907.
a closer look at the beautiful window embellishments.
nothing and no one is forgotten. this memorial was probably erected in GDR times ( i read 1985 somewhere? ) to commemorate the victims of buchenwald concentration camp.
i was really curious about those ruinous factories we had seen from the castle and therefore we made our way there. this villa/mansion was probably part of the whole factory terrain as well. it looked rather haunted.
a part of the leather factory. while it does have a really intriguing charm with its derelict building fabric, i also often think about the loss of good architecture. what if people actually decided to renovate these instead of letting them go to waste while playing investment games? preserving these glorious factory buildings for housings and residentials would be totally amazing, me thinks. the loss, while beautiful in its decay, is always making me kinda sad.
the other derelict building on the plaza, the one i couldn't find any infos about.
it would make a good concert venue in my eyes. or an entertainment venue in general.
i felt that those two buildings - the castle and the factory - were a good match to each other.
it really did fascinate me. it was so approachable!
the dramatic lighting was awesome, too. sun and dark stormy clouds are the best combination for these kind of buildings ;)
one last glance on the osterburg. it got colder and colder so we decided to head back to home again.
but not before i took some more leather factory pictures.
those industrial buildings really have a thing going on that i can't elude myself from.
some weidenkätzchen ( willow catkins ) as a perfect ending picture for a visit in weida. ( weidenkätzchen comprises the word for weide ( willow ) and weide in turn is part of weida - get it? )
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